I just finished watching Supergirl on Netflix. I want to say at the beginning of this that I do recommend the show, but not necessarily for the reason you might think.
****Spoilers**** (maybe)
Obviously, a comparison must be made between the CW’s other superhero shows. It’s probably almost as good as The Flash and better than Arrow (now, first two seasons of Arrow was better). There is no comparison between shows like Marvel’s… well, I was going to name one, but they’re all better. It also can’t begin to hold a candle to Gotham, which is the best show I’ve seen in a long time.
On to the review:
Characters
One thing about Supergirl that is different from The Flash or Arrow is that with those shows, I like them for the main protagonist. With this show, not so much. Although she grew on me, I thought Supergirl was actually the weakest part of the show. Honestly, I really didn’t like her at the beginning of the show. She was whiny and over-excitable all at the same time. Part of it probably has to do with the actress playing her. Melissa Benoist had a tendency to overact and telegraph, which got irritating after a while. She kind of reminded me of Hayden Christensen in Revenge of the Sith: a pretty good actor until he opened his mouth.
However, like I said, she did grow on me. I can’t tell if I just got used to her over 20 episodes or if she actually started acting better, but I definitely liked the character more toward the end of the season.
Luckily for the show and this review, there are more characters in Supergirl, and most of them don’t suck.
My favorite character of the show was by far Cat Grant. She was witty and powerful and had all of the best one-liners. Cat was something of a matronly figure for Supergirl, while also being a critic, pushing her to become the best she can be. In a lot of ways, Cat was the most realistic-feeling character on the show. Calista Flockhart did a phenomenal job portraying the character.
I also loved the character of Supergirl’s adopted sister, Alex. She was well acted and really interesting. Alex was the perfect rock for Supergirl, and I loved seeing how much she loved her sister. Her relationship with Max Lord was one of my favorites in the show, even though it didn’t take up too much time. I see that becoming more important in future seasons of the show.
One thing you’ll notice about the show very quickly is that it is very female-centric. That said, the few male characters are done well. This being a CW show, they couldn’t resist shoving in a love triangle between Jimmy Olson, Supergirl, and Winn, the tech guy. I didn’t hate it, though, probably because it didn’t last the whole show.
I have to admit that I was genuinely surprised by who Hank Henshaw turned out to be. Honestly, I am amazed I didn’t figure it out earlier. Not spoiling anything here, but man, it was SOOO obvious after the reveal.
Themes
The themes in CW shows tend to be pretty easy to locate, and Supergirl is no exception. The first, most surface-level theme is simply “girl power.” The obvious feminist message can get annoying after a while, but it usually cuts out before I go into rage-quit mode. The show sometimes even made fun of it sometimes, which kinda made up for it.
The biggest theme the show is probably the importance of family. They talk about it in pretty much episode. One thing that Melissa Benoist portrayed really well was the pain Supergirl faced after losing her family on Krypton and the difficulties of adjusting to her new Earth family. This theme led to most of my favorite scenes in the show.
Plot
It’s hard to critique the plot for a 20-episode-long season of a show. I’m still trying to comprehend some of it. But for now, I’ll just say that worked well enough. I can’t think of any particularly egregious plot holes. I did think that the reason for the Kryptonians wanting to take over Earth was stupid, but that’s just my opinion.
Supergirl did suffer from what every CW show is apparently doomed to suffer from: blowing their secrets too soon. Seriously, I’m always robbed of the enjoyment of being surprised by a revelation, because I usually know it’s coming. Like I said above, the only one that surprised me was who Hank Henshaw was, and even that was pretty obvious in retrospect. It’s hard to maintain suspense when I know what the villains are thinking.
The other issue I have with this show is another CW problem. The characters are written so that they have a tendency to “talk the plot.” I would rather see what’s happening versus being told what happened by the characters. Arrow and The Flash both have this problem as well. It annoys me as a screenwriter, and it’s part of the reason I like the Marvel shows better.
Wrap up
Overall, I give the show 7/10 stars. I’m beginning to realize that I may have scored Batman v. Superman too highly…
I recommend it, not for Supergirl herself, but for basically everything else about the show. Go check it out.
Now, to go watch the next season of Gotham. *Rubs hands greedily*
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